Numbers 22-24: A Balaam Blessing

Presented to Nipawin Corps, 22 March 2009
and Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 29 July 2012
By Captain Michael Ramsay

God has a plan for Israel’s Salvation that could not be thwarted here in this story. We know – because we have the Book and have read the beginnings and the endings – that God promised Abraham that his descendants would occupy the land promised to them – at least for a time[1] (beyond that is up to them to remain faithful to their covenant responsibilities; cf. Exodus 19:5, Leviticus 23:33-35, 2 Chronicles 36:20-21, Amos 3:1-2, etc.).[2] As we are reading through the Bible together we notice that He used Moses to deliver people from slavery into the wilderness and Joshua to deliver them from that wilderness of Sin into the Promise. Today we have a very interesting story before us. One of the most interesting – I think – in the book of Numbers, complete with even an angel and a talking donkey: the story of the prophet Balaam and King Balak of Moab. Now we know that God’s plan for salvation will not be thwarted[3] but listen to this, it is interesting.

A king of Moab, Balak, sees how God is using the Israelites to devastate many Amorite communities.[4] Israel is fresh off a couple of military victories and they are on the move and Moab is just south of them and King Balak is concerned. He is worried about them not only because of their military might but also because he fears that if he lets them come across Moab’s land they will use all its supplies (Num 21) so Moab won't even have enough left for their own people. You often here this same logic from people who are opposed to immigration: 'if we let those people in we won't have any jobs for the rest of us'. To be fair though, Balak's logic isn't quite as backward as that.

Remember that there are about 2 million descendants of Israel here in this story.[5] Can you imagine if – in the days of limited transportation, before highways and railroads when we couldn’t quickly and easily get more supplies whenever we wanted them – can you imagine if the present day population of Vancouver just showed up on Nipawin’s doorstep[6], cranky, hungry, needing food, and having just wiped out the city of P.A? What would we do? We couldn’t supply their needs.

Balak couldn’t supply Israel’s needs. He was worried. Now being at least smart enough to believe in God. Even if he does not know the Lord specifically, being Theistic, he figures that he best call in a prophet of some sort to curse these people in order to save his people and his land. Balak sends for Balaam. Numbers 22:5b-14:

Balak said: "A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed." (Balak knows he is powerless on his own! He knows to turn to God.)The elders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the fee for divination. (Balaam didn't work for free!) When they came to Balaam, they told him what Balak had said. "Spend the night here," Balaam said to them, "and I will bring you back the answer the LORD gives me." So the Moabite princes stayed with him.
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 Now I need to interject here. This is significant. You will notice in your Bibles that the word ‘LORD’ has all of the letters capitalised in verse eight – that means that Balaam is not just referring to some nebulous idea of God. ‘LORD’ when we see all the letters capitalised in our Bibles like this is referring to God’s divine name: YHWH. Balak, himself, may very well know the LORD too: the Moabites are descended from Lot after all, Abram’s relative who travelled with him to the Promised Land (Gen 19:63-37). Balak could very well know God and Balaam says that he will tell them what YHWH tells him and then, verse 9ff:[7]

God came to Balaam and asked, "Who are these men with you?"
Balaam said to God, "Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent me this message: 'A people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the land. Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away.' "
But God said to Balaam, "Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed."
The next morning Balaam got up and said to Balak's princes, "Go back to your own country, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you."
So the Moabite princes returned to Balak and said, "Balaam refused to come with us."
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 Balak, as we have read, is wondering what he should do with this impending crisis. He has an idea so he sends for this prophet of God to ask him to bless his plans. So far this doesn’t sound too out of the ordinary, does it? In our world today when calamity strikes we often call on the name of the Lord. In the USA when they were feeling vulnerable after 9/11, church attendance shot way up as people were concerned with what was happening and as they realised that they really needed to rely on more than themselves - for a time anyway.

So this is interesting. Balak is not an atheist. He knows that there is a god and more than that. When he faces possible destruction, he seeks a prophet who intercedes for him with the god of his ancestors, the one true God, YHWH. Balak recognises the sovereignty of God even though he does not realise the plan of salvation yet. This is a good thing (sort of). This is faith. He recognises the power of prayer, the power of sacrifice and the power of coming before the Lord.

The problems for Balak and Balaam in this story really start after they come before the Lord - when they don’t get the answer they want. Verses 15-20:

Then Balak sent other princes, more numerous and more distinguished than the first. They came to Balaam and said:
"This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming to me, because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me." (He's persistent!)
But Balaam answered them, "Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my God. (Now this is true and something that actually we need to remember in our lives too: we can't do anything beyond the command of God - it's not good. But...Balaam doesn't stop there. He says:) Now stay here tonight as the others did, and I will find out what else the LORD will tell me."
That night God came to Balaam and said, "Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you."

To this point as far as Balaam is concerned this seems good, right? - God has told Balaam not to curse the Israelites and Balaam says that he will not do anything that the LORD -his God (verse 18) does not command. And still this is not apparently so bad yet for Balak either. Here Balak is like the persistent widow (Lk. 18:1-8), right? He didn’t get the deliverance just like he desired from his perceived enemies so he doesn’t give up; he comes before the Lord through Balaam again.

I think - so far – if our society was even this good, we would probably be saved from a lot of the problems that are besetting us these days: divorce, pornography, escalating crime rates, increased disparity in the distribution of wealth… Canada used to pray more. We, until very recently, even prayed at the opening of sessions of parliament. Maybe in the years just before we stopped, many MPs didn’t know the LORD but they still came before him. Balak did not necessarily know the LORD but it was YHWH who he is seeking and it is YHWH who he is finding in this story (Cf. Matt 7:7-8).

There are problems though. The first problem is for Balaam, who was the one to whom the LORD was speaking. It says in Numbers 22:22 that the Lord was angry with Balaam for going with Moab’s princes. We’ll come back to this but first, let us read the rest of the story because it is interesting. Verses 21-38:

Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road.
Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between two vineyards, with walls on both sides. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam's foot against it. So he beat her again.
Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"
Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."
The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"
"No," he said.
Then the LORD opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.
The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her."
Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back."
The angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at the Moabite town on the Arnon border, at the edge of his territory. Balak said to Balaam, "Did I not send you an urgent summons? Why didn't you come to me? Am I really not able to reward you?"
"Well, I have come to you now," Balaam replied. "But can I say just anything? I must speak only what God puts in my mouth."
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 So he does. The king of Moab asks him to curse Israel so Balaam travels all the way to the top of one mountain[8] with the king of Moab, where he can see his enemies, and after that long hike and all that time together, Balaam… blesses Israel. Balak, believing in the power of God, is obviously upset. Numbers 23:11-12: Balak says to Balaam, “‘what have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!’

He answered, ‘Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?’” Fine. So Balak and Balaam decide to try again and Balak brings him all the way to the top of another mountain (23:13-26) and asks him to curse Israel. Balaam travels all the way to the top of the second mountain with the king of Moab, where he can see all his enemies, and after that long hike and all that time together, Balaam… blesses Israel; so – verses 25 & 26: Then Balak says to Balaam, “‘Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!’

Balaam answered, ‘Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?’” Fine. So Balak and Balaam decide to try again the persistent King Balak and Balaam again travel all the way to the top of the third mountain, where he can see all his enemies, and after that long hike and all that time together, Balaam… comes before the LORD, and Balaam... is not empty handed but he has a significant offering for the LORD, and then Balaam.... blesses Israel again. And Balak is mad! Numbers 24:10-13: "Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to him, 'I summoned you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times. Now leave at once and go home! I said I would reward you handsomely, but the LORD has kept you from being rewarded.'

Balaam answered Balak, 'Did I not tell the messengers you sent me, 'Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD -and I must say only what the LORD says'?" Balaam doesn’t stop there he goes on to tell Balak how Moab will be crushed through Israel. Balak, who hired Balaam, Balak who has spend all of this time with Balaam, Balak who has spent all of this energy on Balaam, Balak is not pleased. Balak, it says, is angry.

Three times Balak comes before the LORD not wanting salvation for his enemies but wanting them to be cursed. Three times, the Lord tells Balak that He will instead save his enemies. Now as Balak is standing in the way of their salvation, Balak finds himself cursed (Numbers 24:17).

Are there times when we stand in the way of the salvation of our enemies (Cf. Matt 5:44, Luke 6:37; cf. Romans 5:10-11, Colossians 1:21-24; cf TSA doc. 6) and in the process risk calling down a curse upon ourselves? Do we ever say that we couldn’t possibly speak to THOSE people? I have mentioned here before that there were churches in this very community that were not open to smokers, for one example. There are congregations where single mothers did not feel welcome. There are even congregations in this town who have even been called racist. Do we ever -like Balak- call curses upon those whom God has already blessed? Do we ever seek punishments for our enemies? Do we ever call curses upon those for whom God has a plan of salvation? Do we ever refuse to forgive our Christian brothers and sisters and thus risk sacrificing God’s forgiveness for us (Cf. Matt. 6:12-14, 18:15-35, Mark 11:25, Luke 6:37, 11:4, 17:1-3)?

Romans 5:10: “For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” All of us before we are saved are God’s enemies. And those who stand in the way of God’s plan for salvation –like Balak- are still his enemies. Do we ever do this? Do we ever stop people from coming to church? Do we ever make it so people don't want to come to Jesus? Do we ever stand at the top of the proverbial mountain and call curses down on people that we don't like or that we are afraid of? Do we ever stand in the way of other people’s salvation? This was Balak's sin; he was interfering with the Israelites' salvation and actually asking God to curse people that He has already blessed.

There is more to this story than this though and if we leave it here, I fear we might wind up giving Balaam more credit than he deserves. You see Balaam doesn’t curse those God has blessed here, he obeys God (albeit unintentionally) but that is not the end of his story. Now for the rest of the story:

Balaam is not a hero of the faith (Cf. Hebrews 11). Not even close. Num 31:7-9 says: "They [the Israelites] fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every man. …They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder." Numbers 31:15-17 continues, "Have you allowed all the women to live?" he [Moses] asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people..."

So what happened to Balaam, the prophet who communicated with God? He is actually mentioned a lot in the Bible outside of the book of Numbers: Deuteronomy 23:3-5, Joshua 13:22, 24:9-10, Nehemiah 13:1-2, Micah 6:5, 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 1:11, Rev 2:14[9]? Jude 11:1 records that people will be punished who 'have rushed for profit [money] into Balaam’s error’. 2 Peter 2:15 says that Balaam ‘loved the wages of wickedness” and Revelation 2:14 tells us Balaam ‘taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.’

Balaam’s blessing of Israel was not of his own accord. He wanted to curse them (for money). He is mentioned over and over again as a bad guy rather than a hero and he made his decisions based on his pocket book rather than on what the LORD told Him. Deuteronomy 23:5, “However, the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.” Balaam went up those mountains with Balak these three times because Balaam did want to get paid for cursing the Israelites - God just wouldn't let him. Even though - for money - he sought to curse those whom God had blessed, God thwarted his plans and God saved whom God chose to save – not whom Balaam chose to save and Balaam, in the process, rejected this salvation offered to God’s people and Balaam by opposing God in his heart perished in his wickedness.

The prominent Christian philosopher, Ravi Zacharias says of Balaam[10]:

“He was given an extraordinary privilege. God told him, “Whatever you bless, I will bless. Whatever you curse, I will curse. It was a gift entrusted with honour. But Balaam fell victim to his greed. A group of his people’s enemies, came and asked him to curse his own people and they would pay him handsomely. Balaam knew that God did not want that. How was he going to get around it? He told this delegation: “I will come with you to their camp, but I will not curse them” Why did he go, one wonders, if he was not going to curse them. As he drew closer, God spoke to Balaam and said “Don’t do it”. So Balaam looked at this delegation and said “I’m sorry I cannot disobey God.” Next day, they offered him some more money. He said, “All right, I’ll go with you, but will not curse them” Again, God warned him. This happened three times, each time they offered him more money. Finally, he laid his scheme. “I can’t curse them, he said, “but I will give you a plan such that they will end up disobeying God, and in effect curse themselves.”
Balaam got what he wanted, but gave the appearance of being clean. Years later, God warned His people not to be like Balaam, who God did not stop, when he was determined to do it his way.
How often we too, in our lives and in our homes are determined to do it our way rather than God’s way. We find in the end that we squandered God’s blessing by selling ourselves to lesser causes. C.S. Lewis said: There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who bend their knee to Him and say, “Your will be done”, and those who refuse to bend their knee, and God says to them, “All right then, your will be done.” If you are determined to do it your way, God will step aside and second your motion. Why don’t you pause right now and choose to go his way.”

Rom 5:11: “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Let us remember that and let us refrain from going our own way and let us refrain from putting barriers in the way of other people’s salvation. Sometimes the church doors are the most difficult doors to walk through and sometimes I think that is because sometimes there are churchgoers sitting in their chairs, like Balaam on his mountain, trying to exclude others from God’s salvation. I am sure that that is none of us here but it is good to remember that as recorded in Colossians 1:21-24: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel” (cf. TSA doc. 9). So then let us, realising that God has a plan for all of our Salvation that can not be thwarted, let us openly offer his blessing to all those called into His promised rest (Heb 4) that none of them and none of us will reject this salvation and parish outside of the promise.

Let us pray: Thank you Lord that you died so that we may live. Thank you Lord that it is your wish that none of the ones you have chosen would perish. Thank you Lord that whosoever believes in you may indeed have eternal life. Lord please help us to do our part in fulfilling the great commission and in place of grumbling, unholy judgements, and curses, let us offer only the blessing of your salvation to everyone we meet.

Amen.

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[1] Cf. Thomas E. McComiskey, The Expositor's Bible Commentary. Pradis CD-ROM:Amos/Exposition of Amos/III. The Prophetic Oracles (1:3-6:14)/B. Oracles of Judgment Against Israel (2:6-6:14)/2. A lesson based on cause and effect (3:1-12), Book Version: 4.0.2
[2] Cf. Karl Moller. “‘Hear This Word Against You’: a Fresh Look at the Arrangement and the Rhetorical Strategy of the Book of Amos,” Vetus Testamentum 50, no. 4 (2000): 502. And Thomas E. McComiskey, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Amos/Introduction to Amos/Theological Values of Amos/The doctrine of election in Amos, Book Version: 4.0.2
[3]Cf. Ravi Zacharias. Determined to Go Wrong. Available on-line: http://www.rzim.org/USA/USFV/tabid/436/ArticleID/8993/CBModuleId/1133/Default.aspx
[4] This is after He has already granted them 400 years of grace! (Gen 15:12) Cf. Michael Ramsay, Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 52, December 2007 – January 2008: 5-10. Available on-line at: http://www.armybarmy.com/pdf/JAC_Issue_052.pdf
[5] Cf. Thomas B. Dozeman, Numbers. (NIB II. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1998), 177.
[6] Statistics Canada, www.statscan.ca. Vancouver has approximately 2 million people; Nipawin has about 4000 people, and Prince Albert (PA) has 34 000 (2006).
[7] But Cf. John H. Tullock and Mark McEntire. The Old Testament Story, 7th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 1992), 91.
[8] The mountains be more like hills or vantage points than what we would necessarily think of as mountains but an important point is that they are travelling together all of this time and expending all of this effort for there goal.
[9] Balaam is infamous. He is also mentioned in other non-Biblical texts. Cf. John H. Tullock and Mark McEntire. The Old Testament Story, 7th Ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 1992), 91.
[10] Ravi Zacharias. Determined to Go Wrong. Available on-line: http://www.rzim.org/USA/USFV/tabid/436/ArticleID/8993/CBModuleId/1133/Default.aspx